Cooking food over an open fire is a tradition as old as mankind. Food preparation continues to evolve, and has in the last century become a much more common and refined activity due to available fuels and changing technology. These changes offer many new options in cooking techniques as well as offering more sophisticated and varied options in the preparation of many kinds of foods. The one generally consistent and essentially unchanged feature of outdoor cooking is a cooking surface, including a grill grate. The cooking surface has remained generally unchanged over the last century of open fire cooking, regardless of the type of grill or fuel used. The food to be cooked is generally placed on a flat horizontal grill grate that allows for heat and flame to reach the food, while supporting the food so it does not fall into the fire while cooking. Grill grates are usually manufactured using metal bars or rods arranged so that the food is supported while being exposed to the heat source. Commonly, a steel, alloy, or iron grill grate with bars or rods arranged in a parallel, spaced apart configuration suspended over the heat source is employed.
This arrangement allows the flames and heat to reach the food through the spaces between the bars or rods in the grill surface while also allowing the juices, cooking byproduct, and various food preparation liquids to fall through the grill grate. Normally, much of that by-product drops onto the heat supply and is eventually incinerated during the cooking process. However, during the cooking process, there is usually residual material left on the top surface and the underside and sides of the grill grate.
There are various cleaning apparatus available to remove the residual material from the top of the grill grate bars after the cooked food is removed. These include brushes, scrapers, and abrasive tools. These tools are usually used immediately before the next meal is cooked, although they may also be employed immediately after the current meal is finished being cooked. One problem, however, is that after use they tend to leave residual buildup still clinging to the underside and side surfaces of the grill grate. Although this leftover material is not normally in direct contact with current food being cooked, it is still there, residing between the heat source and the cooking surface. If left on the underside of the grill grate bars, this material can decay and leave dangerous bacteria near to the grill grate top surface. Later, when the next meal is being cooked, this residual material is subject to the intense heat of cooking and often begins to burn, smoke and foul the flavor of the fresh food cooking on the top surface of the grill. It generally burns due to the proximity of the heat source directly under this residual material. This can cause uncontrolled flames or even a fire within the grill's enclosure. It can also burn and ruin the underside of the fresh food cooking on the grill grate itself.